STEVEN GERRARD insists he won’t prioritise the Premiership title race ahead of the domestic cup competitions or put the Europa League on the backburner during his second season at Ibrox.

The 39-year-old has spent the last week preparing for the new campaign at a training camp in Portugal as Rangers count down to their first competitive outing on July 11 when they will face either Prishtina or St Joseph’s.

Gerrard had all seven of his summer signings with him in the Algarve as Joe Aribo became the latest player to join the Gers when he completed he switch from Charlton on a four-year contract.

The Light Blues remain in the market for further reinforcements in the coming weeks to add to the deals that have been done already for Jordan Jones, Jake Hastie, Steven Davis, Greg Stewart, Sheyi Ojo and George Edmundson.

Gerrard guided his side into the Europa League group stages last term but Rangers were left empty-handed as they finished nine points adrift of Celtic and were beaten by Aberdeen in the last four of the League Cup and Scottish Cup quarter-finals.

Many fans have queried whether Gerrard would take the Premiership more seriously than the other competitions in the coming months to give his side the best chance possible of a first league title in eight years.

Rangers are expected to mount a more serious challenge for the top flight silverware but Gerrard won’t take it easy in any match that his side are involved in this term.

He said: “The squad isn’t finished yet but it’s not far off.

“Once we get it down a bit, we hope it’ll be strong enough to compete on all fronts.

“I understand the opinion of ex-players, the media and fans saying the league is the priority.

“But come a European night at Ibrox in front of 50,000 fans, if I put a weakened side out what are people going to say about me?

“If I toss off the League Cup what are people going to say about me? If I give up the Scottish Cup, what are people going to say?

“My job is to get a squad capable of trying to compete with what’s in front of us.

“There’s no getting away form the fact the league’s the priority. But we’re going to give everything in the other competitions as well.

“The Europa League definitely had an impact last season. In terms of how many points it cost us in the league, it’s impossible to say.

“So did the discipline side of things so we have to learn from that.

“That’s the reason we’ve had to be quick in the transfer market to get a strong squad together.

“These games are about to us hard and we have to be prepared.”